1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to manufacturing methods of exposure apparatuses and device manufacturing methods, and more particularly to a manufacturing method of an exposure apparatus to manufacture an exposure apparatus that exposes a sensitive object, used in a lithography process for manufacturing microdevices (electron devices), and a device manufacturing method that uses the exposure apparatus manufactured with the manufacturing method of the exposure apparatus. In this case, manufacturing of the exposure apparatus includes, in addition to manufacturing (including assembly) in a plant of a manufacturer and manufacturing (assembly at the time of starting-up) in a plant of a user that is a destination of shipment, assembly needed when the apparatus is moved and installed. In the present specification, the manufacturing of the exposure apparatus is used in such meanings.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, in a lithography process for manufacturing microdevices (electron devices) such as semiconductor devices or liquid crystal display elements, various types of exposure apparatuses including a projection exposure apparatus such as a stepper or a scanning stepper are used.
In a conventional exposure apparatus such as a stepper, a configuration capable of performing high-precision positioning or high-precision scanning has been employed for a reticle stage system that positions a reticle and for a wafer stage system that two-dimensionally moves a wafer. And, in this type of exposure apparatus, a projection optical system is installed to a frame device (body), and further each of the stage systems is sequentially assembled directly to the frame device.
However, with a method of sequentially assembling each of the stage systems and the like to the frame device in this manner, there is the inconvenience such as requiring a time for assembly adjustment and also requiring a long time for adjustment and the like of the relative position between each of the stage systems and the projection optical system. As measures to be taken in order to address such inconvenience and make improvement, an exposure apparatus has been previously proposed (refer to U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2001/0015795), in which a first stage chamber that houses a first stage system moving while holding a first object (reticle) and is installed detachable with respect to a frame device, and a second stage chamber that houses a second stage system moving while holding a second object (wafer) and is installed detachable with respect to the frame device, each have a module configuration, and after the first stage chamber and the second stage chamber are assembled, the stage chambers are installed to the frame device, and thereby assembly of the exposure apparatus can be performed without difficulty and speedily.
In the case of employing such a module configuration, when the modules are carried into the frame device, it is more desirable that the positional relation between the modules and the frame device is maintained in a desired state.